Date Archives: Wednesday June 26th 2002

Aside from other clouds on the horizon, the last couple of days brought some cool news on the dwelling situation. A house we went to look at a week and a half ago is being refurbished, and we expressed a keen interest in taking out a lease at the end of the month.

Our future land lord has been busy as hell – obviously working on renovating the house – putting in heating, kitchen, shower, that kind of stuff. So it was great to finally get a hold of him and convince him that we really, really, really wanted the place. (Each time I spoke to him he’d say “So you really want the place?!”)

All things going well, he’ll visit us on Saturday morning with the papers to sign and the next chapter in our nomadic life style will begin.

Just as the above arrangements were being made, Fliss texted to tell me that she’d gotten this full time job she applied for. This is fantastic news – five long months she’s been looking for a full time gig and finally it’s worked out well.

Not only am I dead pleased for her, but it gives us a bit of a back up plan if events of today transpire for the worst! ;o)

After a decent four day break – a couple of days added onto the weekend because cousin Iain was visiting – today was a fairly hard day back at work.

It wasn’t that the brief holiday was exceptionally peaceful, nor that the day was exceptionally heavy in the workload department. It was just one of those days where you realise early on that staying in bed would have been a far better option.

I’ve been building this intranet for the company pretty much since I joined. The first phase is done and dusted – used by 50 or so people, works well and does its job. The company already has a corporate intranet – which is not specific to the building or location or audience in the same way that the one I’m building is.

So, to avoid treading on any toes, I’m meant to learn where the boundaries of both of those sites lie… there should be no overlap. However, right in the middle of a day that wasn’t going particularly easily in the first place, a very short version of this meeting is sprung on me – I’m told to give the visitors a run down on what the intranet I’ve built does. So I do that – I don’t show too much detail in the short time, but I do show them the “features”.

Later I’m told, and this is only a slightly shorter version, that those “features” will probably end up in the corporate intranet – there will be no need for my intranet and there will be no need for me to be employed. That, as they say, was the icing on the cake for me.

I really hate corporate politics. Really. Lots. At a previous company I was played as a pawn for a year and a half in someone else’s game and it really sucked. Having this freaking imaginary sword hanging over my head which could result in the end for me through no fault of my own ended up in crazy amounts of stress.

What bites is that I love my job – I really do. I take work home with me to play with when there’s really no need, I surf the developer sites for the latest techniques and software scoops. And I genuinely look forward to coming in to work each day – I’ve had two days off sick and only five days holiday since xmas – mostly because I haven’t felt like taking any because I just dig doing what I do.